Hard drive fullness limits information help request

[Paul Schmehl]

--On Monday, April 11, 2005 12:30:37 PM -0700 NMH <drumslayer2 at yahoo.com> 
wrote:

> Hi all
>   I know hard drives tend to not run well when near
> full. They have trouble performing self adjustments
> (hardware), self defragging(unix/FFS) etc.. (as I can
> express it) However, I need to find some documentation
> or some help in explaining this better.
>   I am working with some people who store loads of
> files, on many drives and tend to fill the drives to
> 95% and more and then can't understand why they become
> unstable.  I need to be able to explain it better and
> I would also like to know more to be able to
> factually/sanely set a percent full safe limit.
>
>  Any help would be appreciatted
>
Q: What happens when you fill a cabinet that is designed to hold 100 
folders with 95 folders, many of which are crammed full of papers?

A: It gets much harder to put more folders in or to put more "stuff" in the 
existing folders.  And papers start to stick out and catch on the top of 
the drawer because they no longer fit.

Paul Schmehl (pauls at utdallas.edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu